History of online games

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

video games played over a computer network.[1]
The evolution of these games parallels the evolution of computers and computer networking, with new technologies improving the essential functionality needed for playing video games on a remote server. Many video games have an online component, allowing players to play against or cooperatively with players across a network around the world.

Background of technologies

The

first video and computer games, such as NIMROD (1951), OXO (1952), and Spacewar! (1962), were for one or two players sitting at a single computer, which was being used only to play the game. Later in the 1960s, computers began to support time-sharing, which allowed multiple users to share the use of a computer simultaneously. Systems of computer terminals were created, allowing users to operate the computer from a different room from where the computer was housed. Soon after, modem links further expanded this range so that users did not have to be in the same building as the computer; terminals could connect to their host computers via dial-up or leased telephone lines. With the increased remote access, host-based games were created, in which users on remote systems connected to a central computer to play single-player, and soon after, multiplayer games.[citation needed
]

Later, in the 1970s,

]

PLATO

In the 1960s, Rick Bloome implemented SpaceWar! as a two-player game on PLATO.[2]

In the early 1970s, the

Empire and Spasim), with features such as interplayer messaging, persistent game characters, and team play for at least 32 simultaneous players.[3]

Networked host-based systems

A key goal of early network systems such as ARPANET and JANET was to allow users of "dumb" text-based terminals attached to one host computer (or, later, to terminal servers) to interactively use programs on other host computers. This meant that games on those systems were accessible to users in many different locations by the use of programs such as telnet.

Most of the early host-based games were single-player, and frequently originated and were primarily played at universities. A sizable proportion was written on

Star Trek
(1972) were very popular, with several or many students each playing their own copy of the game at once, time-sharing the system with each other and users running other programs.

Eventually, though, multiplayer host-based games on networked computers began to be developed. One of the most important of these was

MAD debuted on BITNET; this was the first MUD fully accessible from a worldwide computer network.[4] During its two-year existence, 10% of the sites on BITNET connected to it.[citation needed] In 1988, another BITNET MUD named MUDA appeared. It lasted for five years, before going offline due to the retirement of the computers it ran on.[5]

In the summer of 1973,

Imlac PDS-1 computers. The authors added two-player capability by connecting two IMLAC computers with serial cables. Since two computers were involved, as opposed to "dumb terminals", they could use formatted protocol packets to send information to each other, so this could be considered the first peer-to-peer computer video game. It could also be called the first first-person shooter
.

In 1983,

VMTP protocol (224.0.1.0) and the Network Time Protocol (224.0.1.1) having arrived earlier.[citation needed
]

In May 1993,

Sega of America to introduce a similar online console gaming system for the Sega Genesis.[6]

X Window System games

In 1986, MIT and DEC released the X Window System, which provided two important capabilities in terms of game development. Firstly, it provided a widely deployed graphics system for workstation computers on the Internet. A number of workstation graphics systems existed, including Bell Labs' BLIT, SGI's IRIS GL, Carnegie Mellon's Andrew Project, DEC's UWS (Ultrix Workstation Software), VWS (Vax Workstation Software), and Sun's NeWS, but X managed over time to secure cross-platform dominance, becoming available for systems from nearly all workstation manufacturers, and coming from MIT, had particular strength in the academic arena. Since Internet games were being written mostly by college students, this was critical.

Secondly, X had the capability of using computers as

network stacks.[citation needed
]

The first of these remote display games was Xtrek. Based on a PLATO system game,

Empire, Xtrek is a 2D multiplayer space battle game loosely set in the Star Trek universe. This game could be played across the Internet, probably the first graphical game that could do so, a few months ahead of the X version of Maze War. Importantly, however, the game itself was not aware that it was using a network. In a sense, it was a host-based game, because the program only ran on a single computer, and knew about the X Window System, and the window system took care of the networking: essentially one computer displaying on several screens. The X version of Maze War, on the other hand, was peer-to-peer and used the network directly, with a copy of the program running on each computer in the game, instead of only a single copy running on a server. Netrek (originally called Xtrek II) was a fully network-aware client–server rewrite of Xtrek.[citation needed] Other remote X display-based games include xtank, xconq, xbattle and XPilot (1991).[7] By 1989 Simson Garfinkel reported that on MIT's Project Athena, "Games like 'X-tank' and 'X-trek' let students at different workstations command tanks and starships, fire missiles at each other as fast as they can hit the buttons on their mice, and watch the results on their graphics displays". Observers estimated that up to one third of Athena usage was for games.[8]

Commercial timesharing services

As time-sharing technology matured, it became practical for companies with excess capacity on their expensive computer systems to sell that capacity. Service bureaus such as Tymshare (founded 1966) dedicated to selling time on a single computer to multiple customers sprang up. The customers were typically businesses that did not have the need or money to purchase and manage their own computer systems.

In 1979, two time-sharing companies,

electronic mail and BBSs and games became the dominant uses of the systems. For many people, these, rather than the academic and commercial systems available only at universities and technical corporations, were their first exposure to online gaming.[citation needed
]

In 1984, CompuServe debuted

role playing game. Islands of Kesmai used scrolling text (ASCII graphics) on the screen to draw maps of player location, depict movement, and so on; the interface is considered Roguelike. At some point, graphical overlay interfaces could be downloaded, putting a slightly more glitzy face on the game. Playing cost was the standard CompuServe connection fee of the time, $6 per hour with a 300 baud
modem, $12 for a 1200 baud modem; the game processed one command every 10 seconds, which equates to 123 cents per command.

The LINKS was an online network launched for the

multiplayer online games, including T&E Soft's Daiva Dr. Amandora and Super Laydock, Telenet Japan's Girly Block, and Bothtec's Dires. It also featured several downloadable games, including Konami's A1 Grand Prix and Network Rally.[9]

Club Caribe
.

In 1987,

Famicom (NES) in Japan. Led by Masayuki Uemura, Nintendo Research & Development 2 developed the modem hardware, and Nomura Securities developed the client and server software and the information database. Five network-enabled games were developed for the system, including a graphical, competitive online multiplayer version of Yamauchi's favorite classic, Go.[11]

In 1987,

backport from Windows to the Macintosh was made available as an open beta on the Internet. In 1999, Kesmai was purchased by Electronic Arts
, which started running the game servers itself. The last Air Warrior servers were shut down on December 7, 2001.

In 1988, Federation debuted on Compunet. It was a text-based online game, focused around the interstellar economy of the galaxy in the distant future. Players work their way up a series of ranks, each of which has a slightly more rewarding and interesting but difficult job attached, which culminates in the ownership of one's own "duchy", a small solar system. After some time on GEnie, in 1995 Federation moved to AOL. AOL made online games free in 1996, dropping surcharges to play, and the resulting load caused it to drop online game offerings entirely. IBGames, creators of Federation, started offering access to the game through its own website, making it perhaps the first game to transition off of an online service provider. IBGames kept the game operational until 2005 after most of the player base transitioned to the sequel, 2003's Federation II.

In 1990,

Lineage (1998), and EverQuest
(1999).

In 2000,

, does offer online play via Nintendo Network.

See also

References

  1. ^ Andrew Rollings; Ernest Adams (2006). Fundamentals of Game Design. Prentice Hall.
  2. ^ David R. Woolley (1994). "PLATO: The Emergence of Online Community". thinkofit.com. Retrieved October 12, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ David R. Woolley (1994). "PLATO: The Emergence of Online Community". thinkofit.com. Archived from the original on September 4, 2013. Retrieved October 12, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "MAD, Multi-Access Dungeon (1984–1986)". Lextrait.com. Archived from the original on December 17, 2009. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
  5. ^ "GRCRUN11". www.grcrun11.gr. Retrieved May 4, 2019.
  6. ^ "Sega Phone-Links Games: interactive coin-op gameplay demo'd between Tokyo and Osaka; Sega home video will have similar capabilities in the USA". RePlay. Vol. 18, no. 12. September 1993. pp. 43–4.
  7. ^ "The Story of XPilot". May 31, 2008. Archived from the original on May 31, 2008. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
  8. ^ Garfinkel, Simson L. (April 1989). "The Hackers are Still Ahead" (PDF). Technology Review. pp. 4–7. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
  9. ^ The LINKS (Network), MSX Resource Center
  10. ^ "Morningstar, C. and F. R. Farmer (1990), "The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat", The First International Conference on Cyberspace, Austin, TX, USA". Fudco.com. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
  11. ^ Takano, Masaharu (September 11, 1995). "How the Famicom Modem was Born". Nikkei Electronics (in Japanese). English translation by GlitterBerri. {{cite magazine}}: External link in |others= (help)
  12. ^ Sega Is Innovation, Gaming Target
  13. ^ IGN Staff (February 23, 2001). "64DD: Broken Promises". Retrieved May 4, 2019.